Pilot cohort · Labor Day 2026. Founder Club slots are limitedLearn more
Community · Inside Club1

It started on a
Saturday morning.

Great golf, real games, and then cash, notebooks, and “I’ll get you next weekend.” Club1 is what a member built instead.

The Story

Built as a member, for members.

Club1 started inside a century-old club, watching the same Saturday ritual every week: great golf, real games, and then cash, notebooks, and “I’ll get you next weekend.” The clubs never lacked tradition. They lacked modern software, something that connects a club to its members at a deeper level.

So we built the operating system a private club deserves, competition at the front door, the whole club behind it.

Ray Bertka, Founder · Jake Appleby, Co-Founder
Ray Bertka, founder of Club1, with his family
The Bertkas
Ray Bertka, founder of Club1, with his family
The Applebys

The road to Labor Day.

From one club’s Saturday ritual to the founding cohort.

01 · The Idea

A century-old club

Watching the same Saturday ritual every week, and realizing the clubs never lacked tradition. They lacked software.

02 · The Build

A full club OS

Not a gaming app with extras, the whole operating system: tee sheet to dining room to the ledger underneath it all.

03 · The Pilot

Labor Day 2026

The founding cohort goes live, real clubs, real members, real money on regulated rails.

04 · The Window

The Founder Clubs

Founding clubs carry the Founder mark for good, the strongest terms we will ever offer. Then the window closes.

The people behind it.

Two members who wanted the club experience to be better, and built it.

Ray Bertka, founder of Club1, on the course
Ray Bertka
Founder

Ray Bertka

Founder & CEO · Club1

Ray Bertka built Club1 from inside the game rather than outside it. Before founding the company, he spent eight years as President and CEO of Helixco, leading the business from 2018 through early 2026, a run that taught him where operations actually break, and how much of any business still runs on the parts nobody has modernized in decades.

Club1 began as a member’s observation. Every Saturday at his home club, a century-old course where the game has been played the same way for generations, the same ritual played out: great golf, real games, and then cash, notebooks, and “I’ll get you next weekend.” The clubs never lacked tradition. They lacked software worthy of it.

So he built it, a full club operating system covering the tee sheet, the dining room, the pro shop, lodging, racquets, and the member ledger underneath all of it, with real-money games settled to the cent on regulated rails. Ray architected the platform, wrote the operating rules, and runs the company day to day as a founding cohort of clubs prepares to go live.

His conviction is that private clubs don’t need to be modernized away from what makes them work. The traditions are the product; the software should disappear behind them.

Ray lives in Northeast Ohio with his wife and daughter, and still plays the Saturday game that started all of this.

Ray Bertka, founder of Club1, on the course
Jake Appleby
Co-Founder

Jake Appleby

Co-Founder · Club1

Jake Appleby is a lifelong golfer, entrepreneur, and business leader with a passion for building high-performing teams, cultivating meaningful relationships, and creating exceptional customer experiences.

After a successful career as a competitive playing professional, Jake moved into financial services, where he helps lead Life Professionals. He specializes in helping individuals, families, and businesses protect what matters most through insurance and financial planning, while mentoring and developing insurance professionals across the country.

As a former playing professional, current private club member, and entrepreneur, Jake brings the perspective of someone who has experienced the game from every angle, player, member, business leader, and club advocate. Decades immersed in golf gave him a deep appreciation for both the traditions of the game and the opportunities to improve the club experience for members, golf professionals, and club leadership alike.

That combination led Jake to co-found Club1. His vision is to help private clubs strengthen member engagement, simplify operations, and build stronger club communities while preserving the traditions that make every club unique. He believes the best organizations are built on trust, integrity, and exceptional service. Values that have guided him throughout his career.

Outside of work, Jake enjoys spending time with his wife, Maria, and their son, Barrett. Whether he’s on the golf course, with family, or collaborating on new ideas, he is driven by bringing people together, solving meaningful challenges, and creating lasting value for the communities and organizations he serves.

What we hold.

Private by design.

Member DMs are unreadable by staff, architecturally, not by policy. A club’s community belongs to its members.

Money like infrastructure.

Regulated escrow, server-side settlement, one append-only ledger. Inside a club, trust is the product.

Tips whole. Fees flat.

Gratuities go 100% to the people who earned them, and no fee is ever a percentage of anything.

Tradition, modernized.

We don’t change how the game is played, how dinner is served, or how a club feels. We retire the paperwork underneath it.

Club1
Founding tier · By invitation · The window closes once

Founder Club

Founding clubs carry the Founder mark for good, the strongest terms we will ever offer, locked before the platform opens wide.

25%
Rev share · locked for the life of the club
Forever
Founder designation · grandfathered terms
First
Access to everything we build
Request access

Keep exploring

Live scoring and side games from the fairway in the Club1 member app

On Course Gaming

Six formats, settled at the last hole.

Explore
Club1 Pro Dashboard command center for private club staff

The Platform

Every department, one operating system.

Explore
Club Home in the Club1 member app, the club’s directory in a member’s pocket

The Member App

The whole club, in every member’s pocket.

Explore

The list is forming.

Club1 is joined by invitation, and the first clubs set the standard. Request yours. We'll reach out when your club can join. One note, nothing else, ever.

Private clubs only · No marketing · By invitation